No Question About That - a Manchester United podcast

#1051 | Ed and Adam use the City verdict to talk about reputation rather than punishment mechanics: City's for organising the fraud, the Premier League's for taking eight years and letting itself be outmuscled by lawyers, and Pep Guardiola's, since virtually everything he won at City was built on financial cheating he spent years publicly denying.

There's an awkward political dimension: City are owned by the UAE, a UK security and investment partner, and there’s scepticism that the other 19 clubs would vote for expulsion given how many owners have their own business ties to the Gulf. Given that, how might any punishment be constructed and what might be just?

On Pep specifically, they trace a pattern running from his playing days through Barcelona to City. His legacy is now inseparable from the fraud that funded it. Then there’s the broadcasters who’ve pretended non of this was happening. Shame on them.

0:27 Intro: 114 of 115 charges
2:32 Reputations in the toilet
4:52 Why spending limits exist
9:27 Can City rebuild their reputation?
14:17 Nation-state ownership and the UAE
19:36 Would clubs vote to expel City?
27:00 What punishment actually fits
32:57 Charge stacking and precedent
38:28 Getting the owners out
39:24 Pep's legacy
45:30 Sudan, sportswashing and silence
47:50 How the media will cover it
55:04 Fan reaction and the weaponized fanbase
58:04 What happens next
1:00:06 Wrap-up

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#1050 | Ed and Dominic discuss a momentous day. Manchester City have been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges brought by the Premier League, after a process that's run more than three and a half years, during which City won six trophies. The charges centre on disguising owner funding as sponsorship income and refusing to cooperate with investigators; no punishment has been decided yet.

Expect a long appeals process before anything is actually handed down.

So what is the proportionate punishment? Points deductions, transfer restrictions, even expulsion are all discussed as genuine options, though retrospective title-stripping seems unlikely. There's a longer, more uncomfortable question too: how do you separate City's sporting achievements from the financial fraud that funded them, and what does that mean for Pep Guardiola's legacy specifically, given how directly his trophies depended on money the club lied about.

0:26 Guilty on 114 of 115 charges
5:10 What the charges actually were
12:21 Can titles be stripped?
14:46 What punishment fits the crime
18:38 City's PR machine and the media
21:45 Everton, Forest and precedent
24:26 City before the 2008 takeover
27:33 Pep's legacy and the asterisk
30:32 Wrap-up

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If you are interested in supporting the show and accessing a weekly exclusive bonus episode, check out our Patreon page or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Supporter funded episodes are ad-free. NQAT is available on all podcast apps and in video on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button, leave a rating and write a review on Apple or Spotify.
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#1049 | Manchester United's full-year financials landed the same week as defeats to City and Brighton and a draw at Fulham. Ed and Jamie's read is that the numbers tell a positive story: record revenue of £677.6 million, operating cash flow more than double what United generated the previous year, and a smaller real interest bill than the eye-catching accounting figure implies.

The episode works through where the financial resilience came from: ticket price rises, strong retail performance offsetting lost sponsors.

There's the £63.5 million spent on stadium land as the first sign of what United plan to do with the extra cash, and an explainer of INEOS's own complicated, heavily leveraged business, useful context for anyone hoping Jim Ratcliffe can simply write a bigger cheque.

The episode closes on ownership: the price floor on a new buyer lifts in 2027, but with almost nobody left in the world both able and willing to pay Glazer-level prices for the club, don't expect a takeover any time soon.

0:27 Welcome and what's coming up

3:15 Full year financials: headline numbers

5:28 Matchday, ticketing and commercial revenue

10:04 Profitability and cash flow

14:43 Debt, interest and the stadium land

23:14 Guidance

28:50 INEOS explained

35:10 Ownership, the 2027 price floor and potential buyers

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If you are interested in supporting the show and accessing a weekly exclusive bonus episode, check out our Patreon page or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Supporter funded episodes are ad-free. NQAT is available on all podcast apps and in video on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button, leave a rating and write a review on Apple or Spotify.
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#1048 | United Women are three games into new manager Eva Olid's reign: defeat to London City Lionesses, hammered by Chelsea, then a much-improved 1-1 draw at Arsenal, undone by a 95th-minute equaliser.

Ed and Andy assess Eva Olid's start given the circumstances, a very late appointment, barely any pre-season, no marquee signings.

There were some interesting changes at Arsenal, with Andrea Medina's shift into midfield the standout tactical call and performance of the three games so far.

Then there's some winnable fixtures ahead: Sheffield United in the League Cup and West Ham in the league, both real chances to record a first win.

0:00 Welcome, Andy

1:05 Draw with Arsenal

6:28 Assessing Eva Olid

13:02 Season expectations

24:01 League Cup

26:35 West Ham preview

28:34 WSL title race

31:18 Wrap-up

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If you are interested in supporting the show and accessing a weekly exclusive bonus episode, check out our Patreon page or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Supporter funded episodes are ad-free. NQAT is available on all podcast apps and in video on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button, leave a rating and write a review on Apple or Spotify.
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#1047 | Another week another crisis? After United’s draw at Fulham, Ed and Dharnish push back on the reaction, arguing the underlying picture (29 shots, nearly 3 xG, more shots and box touches than any team in the league this season) suggests better times ahead. Shifts in fine margins turned this game into a mediocre week rather than a crisis.The real issue is a press that keeps failing because Bruno and Rashford aren't suited to it. Carrick keeps asking them to do it anyway. In possession, the double false-nine setup leaves progression looking attractive, but nobody is actually in the box when it matters. This needs fixing before results turn even worse. They also take apart the widely shared running-stats graphic, arguing it reflects a possession-heavy style rather than laziness, using City's own numbers as the comparison.

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Ready to have an AI that can tackle real work? Try Claude Cowork today — Claude.ai/NQAT

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0:27 Intro: another United draw
2:38 Is it really that bad? The xG case
5:12 Pressing issues
10:12 Midblock or press? Personnel and compromise
12:50 In possession: breaking down in the final third
16:44 Attacking dynamics and Bruno's role
27:08 Running stats
33:05 Wrap-up

If you are interested in supporting the show and accessing a weekly exclusive bonus episode, check out our Patreon page or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Supporter funded episodes are ad-free. NQAT is available on all podcast apps and in video on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button, leave a rating and write a review on Apple or Spotify.
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